Since the pandemic, about half of all federal workers have been able to do their jobs remotely for at least part of the week. It's a benefit similar to what private companies offer their employees.

When President-elect Donald Trump was asked in late December about his plans to order all federal employees back to the office, he claimed the Biden Administration had recently made that goal more difficult by agreeing to let thousands of federal employees keep working from home until 2029.

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"Somebody in the Biden administration gave a five-year waiver of that so that for five years, people don't have to come back into the office," Trump said during a Dec. 16 news conference.

Trump was referring to 42,000 employees at the Social Security Administration whose union inked a deal in November with Administrator Martin O'malley, a Biden appointee, that will allow eligible employees to keep working from home two to five days a week for the next five years.

A Scripps News investigation last year revealed how staffing shortages at Social Security have been so severe that in some cases it's taking years for disability recipients to get their claims processed.

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The new contract is designed to retain staff and prevent those lengthy delays from getting even longer.

Most Social Security staffers will still have to show up to the office at least part of the week, but the new contract allows hundreds of employees to stay fully remote until at least 2029.